BARCELONA—LG shouldn't be shy about its perfectly decent, reliable midrange phones. While its big press event yesterday was all about the LG V30S+ ThinQ, a bunch of camera modes disguised as a new flagship phone, the LG K10 looks like it will bring the masses an all-metal body and fun, wide-angle selfie camera.

We found the K10 and its little sibling, the K8, on LG's stand at Mobile World Congress here, and spent a bit of time with them.

They're nothing shocking. The K10 is a black metal slab with a cool, brushed-metal back and a front that steadily refuses to acknowledge the current bezel-reduction trend. It runs Android 7.1.2, which is disappointing, but at least it's relatively recent. The 5.3-inch, 720p screen is bright and clear. The phone felt a little wide in my hand, but I've been handling a lotof super-narrow, bezel-free flagship phones at the show.

The K10's big trick is a wide-angle selfie camera mode. The 8-megapixel shooter did well in indoor light. Hit a button, and it takes a 5-megapixel, wide-angle image for group selfies, with the attendant fish-eye effect. There isn't a second front-facing camera; this is a software mode, but it works to good effect.

I was a little less thrilled with the 13MP main camera, which had some blur issues in the indoor hall lighting. When I checked my shots, the sharp front-facing photo and the main camera shot were at 1/33 second; there was a lot more motion in the main camera shot.

The phone comes in 16GB and 32GB models, with 2GB and 3GB of RAM, respectively. There's a 3,000mAh battery, the LG fingerprint sensor in its usual place on the back, and—of course—a headphone jack. It runs decently on a Mediatek MT6750 processor. Bluetooth is the older version 4.2, and the phone is powered by MicroUSB. So yeah, much of it is a flashback to 2015, but a 2015 smartphone with a wide-angle selfie camera will still please a lot of entry-level consumers. LG hasn't announced US availability of the K10 yet.

The K8, on the other hand, feels disappointingly cheap, like an Alcatel Tracfone. It has a 5-inch, 1,280-by-720 screen, 8-megapixel and 5-megapixel cameras, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of ROM, and a 2500mAh battery. This one also has a Mediatek processor, although LG didn't say which model.

The problem is, the K8's build just feels cheap. The plastic back allows for a removable battery, but it feels flimsy. The screen also appears to be lower quality than the K10; it should be denser and just as pretty, but it just didn't look that way in real life. I suspect LG may skip the US with the K8, leaving the K10 to be picked up as an affordable phone by the likes of Boost, MetroPCS, and Tracfone.

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About the Author

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 13 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, hosts our One Cool Thing daily Web show, and writes opinions on tech and society.
Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer. Other than ... See Full Bio

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